Motorola Fire XT pictures and hands-on

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Whilst nosying around the various European mobile network stands that were set up over at IFA, hoping for a sniff of a new exciting Android handset or perhaps even the mysetrious Nokia 703, we were surprised to see the Motorola Fire XT strutting its stuff.

Although officially announced back in August, we're still waiting on news of a European launch. And this despite the news that the QWERTY packing Motorola Fire will hit these shores by the end of September.

As for the all-touch Fire XT, this is a Gingerbread handset has a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive multitouch display and is running Android 2.3 with the Moto Switch UI over the top. The model we picked up was running Android 2.3.3.

It's powered by a 800MHz processor, and packs just 512MB of storage - so it's clearly aimed at the entry-mid level market - but it does have connectivity options aplenty. There's dual-band HSDPA, quad-band EDGE, an FM radio with RDS support, Wi-Fi b/g/n, an E-compass, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, GPS and AGPS.

Camera-wise, there's a 5-megapixel one around the back with a flash and also a front facing VGA one. Battery life is pretty decent thanks to the 1540mAh battery, with up to 8 hours of talk time and 28 days of standby in 3G mode.

The phone was responsive enough, and the display clear - although if the XT isn't priced up correctly then it could get lost in the ever-growing Android mid-level arena. Hopefully though, it'll hit the lower end of the price spectrum, and be an attractive prospect for Android PAYGers.

The Motorola XT531, to give it its full moniker, will be sold as the Motorola Fire XT in Europe and the Motorola Spice XT in other markets. No word on pricing as of yet.